US Congress presses EU to designate IRGC as terror entity

“The IRGC clearly presents a threat to the EU and our collective security,” 12 Republican senators led by Sen. James Risch (R., Idaho), ranking member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, wrote on Wednesday to Josep Borrell, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy.

“It is long past time to cut off its resources before the next tragedy strikes,” they added.

Republicans say an EU “designation will cripple the IRGC’s ability to promote terrorism and will make the world safer for Americans and Europeans alike,” according to a copy of the letter exclusively obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

“Amidst the IRGC’s ongoing support of Russian war crimes in Ukraine, EU reluctance both weakens our collective resolve against Russia and ignores the Iranian government’s goal of sowing terror in the West,” the senators wrote, adding, “The growing alignment of Russian and Iranian activities, including the use of Iranian drones in Ukraine, makes the IRGC complicit in Russia’s terror.”

An EU designation of the IRGC will ultimately “sharpen and align the US and EU responses to Russian aggression,” according to the senators.

“IRGC actions have already hurt Europeans,” they claimed.

“It is clear,” the senators conclude, “that there is sufficient evidence of IRGC malign conduct in Europe to warrant a terror designation.”

The EU lawmakers have recently voted unanimously for blacklisting the IRGC as a terrorist organization. The move was not binding, and the bloc’s council of ministers refused to blacklist the IRGC.

EU officials noted that such a move does not have a legal basis.

Iranian officials have warned the Europeans against blacklisting the elite military force, stressing they will have to take responsibility for the consequences if they make such a mistake.